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DIY Cliff Style Fly Box

I know I'm not the first person who has done this but I figured I'd post pictures of it and help anyone out if they are interested. Its pretty easy and cheap to do. It was I think $7 for everything compared to the $40+ the Cliff brand ones cost. Enjoy!

The idea for the foam on the top was a spot to dry flys. I believe Flambeau makes a fly box with foam on the top

Great job Ben! I've been thinking of making a similar box for tarpon flies out of a wooden briefcase-type box that used to hold an artist's kit. I love the idea of the foam on top - I'm definitely gonna do that. Thanks for posting.

This particular box is an "ArtBox" which I believe is the actual brand too. I buy them at my local hobby for $8.99 and always use a %40 coupon so it doesn't turn out to be expensive at all. On the inside of the box is stacked 3mm closed cell foam also from Hobby Lobby. Comes in 11" X 17" sheets which is enough for 2 "layers" of foam. For this one I used 6 layers of foam glued together for the inside which equates to just under 3/4". For the strips on the inside I used scrap pieces of 3mm foam cut to 3/8" with pinking shears (step moms lol) and hot glued on. They stay pretty well. I used hot glue so I could take them off if I didnt like them or need to replace them.

The key is too make sure you get the layers all stuck together good or they will drive you nuts. I used contact adhesive (spray) for the whole project and it worked pretty good. My next one I will use rubber cement or goop for the foam layers because I think it sticks better and then the spray adhesive for gluing the foam to the box.

Great stuff Chefben4. Did the lobby store sell ridged foam strips or did you cut them with those wavy craft scissors to make them ridged?

I cut those myself using pinking shears. All I did was draw a straight line on the foam, cut with the pinking shears, then trim to the size I wanted. If you do the foam sheets like I did you will have quite a bit of left over foam scrap for the strips.

I have a place by me called the foam factory. Going to bring my Cliff Case up there and see if they have something similar. The closed cell craft foam works, but I do like the Cliff stuff more I think.